1989 Craftsman II

hey guys, idk how well these pics will look. they were took with my cell phone. (just now thought about trying to put them on here) they are from a few months ago (explains the snow lol)
The mods i've done are: removed deck, six inch drive pulley and three inch trans pulley(might get changed), and a foot throttle.
oh and if you are wondering what the little piece of metal dangling under the foot rest is. that is a piece of metal bent up for a shifter. the new belt and how small the gap was didn't allow me to use my stock shifter.
What you guys think so far???


This is it right after wheelin in the snow. so much fun. and yes that is a boombox strapped to the hood (i wanted music lol)


just a water bottle holder off an old mountain bike.



my foot throttle (i have sawed off the extra pipe since this picture was taken)

finally man ,great mower and love the mods. Get some tires and youl be set i LOVE coke

arild365 wrote:

finally man ,great mower and love the mods. Get some tires and youl be set i LOVE coke

i know, i should have had pics on here sooner. yea i'm wanting some better rear tires. its so fun to ride. especially when we had snow. i'd get sideways in the driveway and just ride it sideways like fifty feet.

oh might be confusing if i reference other threads, but on your thread, the tire swap, i was telling you about the metal i'm using for my front bumper. you think it will hold up??

oh yah defenitly man. it should do the job! I find carftsmans are fun and great to customize. Is you tranny locked ?

arild365 wrote:

oh yah defenitly man. it should do the job! I find carftsmans are fun and great to customize. Is you tranny locked ?

nope it is not.
yea i like my crafstman. it is sturdy. only flimsy metal is on the top of the hood. like the fenders can hold my fat butt if i sat on them. lol

arild365 wrote:

oh yah defenitly man. it should do the job! I find carftsmans are fun and great to customize. Is you tranny locked ?

Yup, they are strong machines on the most part! Different tyres would be cool!

yea, once i get my front wheels on and bumpers built the next thing will be rear tires. and maybe paint, idk if its worth it or not.

oh question, right now i have a 6 inch pulley on the motor and a 3 on the trani. could i put a 5 inch on the motor and a 4 inch on the trani and still use the same belt?

i dont think so... unless you have some idle pulleys that you could bypass or remove altogether, in my view it woul increase the belt size by 1 - 2".

i got a belt from an old mower that i thought would work it was only 2" or sumtin too small and well, it didnt work i could have moved the entire transaxle forward and took the gearstick plate out all together but i wanted it to look stock...

hope i helped

my thinking was if you dropped an inch on the front pulley and added an inch on the rear that it would still use the same belt.

hmm must a read that wrong, not sure depends on the distance between the front and the idle(if its anything like mine) dunno though try and if it doesnt work sell them on....or keep them.....or do whatever you like with them

no im pretty sure it would be the same and you could pull it off. i see what your saying. you could try a 3 on tranny and 6 on motor.. thatll get yah to the mud. but yah 5 and 4 would probably work. id use the same size belt

arild365 wrote:

no im pretty sure it would be the same and you could pull it off. i see what your saying. you could try a 3 on tranny and 6 on motor.. thatll get yah to the mud. but yah 5 and 4 would probably work. id use the same size belt

if i can get a 5 and a 4 then i will try it. not a big deal right now. i'm more worried about gettin the new front wheels on and bumpers.

I had to take a few takes at the first picture, I thought that was a boombox on the hood. LOL Good idea, how did it work?


You could keep the same tires and add chains if you want, I'm gonna do that to my one tractor. Just for beating around, cant afford to much at the moment but I do have chains and some other items laying around. Depends on how fast you plan on going.

CMHN wrote:

I had to take a few takes at the first picture, I thought that was a boombox on the hood. LOL Good idea, how did it work?


You could keep the same tires and add chains if you want, I'm gonna do that to my one tractor. Just for beating around, cant afford to much at the moment but I do have chains and some other items laying around. Depends on how fast you plan on going.

well it didn't work too bad. but kept sliding around(all i had holding it on was two bungee straps. i wanted to ride and have music, so i quickly put this together. lol

well right now i wouldn't want to add chains (i clocked my mower at 26 mph). but they could be a possibility if i was to slow it down. (which i may do)

I can understand that, my tractor isn't going to be made for speed, rather torque. I want something to stomp threw the woods with and I am a big guy, (6', 325lbs) so torque is more important then speed right now.

I'm thinking on adding a marine radio and speakers. Would be cool driving threw the woods listening to your favorite music.

CMHN wrote:

I can understand that, my tractor isn't going to be made for speed, rather torque. I want something to stomp threw the woods with and I am a big guy, (6', 325lbs) so torque is more important then speed right now.

I'm thinking on adding a marine radio and speakers. Would be cool driving threw the woods listening to your favorite music.

yea i'd like more torque so i will most likely slow it down some. that's a good idea, use a marine radio

hey guys.
as of now i have a 12 hp briggs on my craftsman. and it runs very well. should i stay with it or see if i can use a 14 hp kohler command i have? (that mower with the kohler doesn't run but i think it is just electrical)

Speaking of radios- i have my old sony explode cd player out of my truck - i have some factory ford speakers i bot at a thrift store cheep- i have a really old but awsome 150 watt 4 channel cheeper amp ( used it in my 1st truck, then in my new one with a MTX crossover) - ive been thinking which tractor i could put all that stuff on ......to actually hear the radio id need a real muffler.....since id probably not take it mudding- i shouldnt have an issue with water.


Years ago i actually hooked a 50 watt amp up to 2 - 6x9 speakers using a old car radio - with ear plugs in and tractor running/mowing - could hear it still - had the whole thing in a wooden box attached to a small trailer using alligator clips to hook it to the tractors battery - also used an old CB antenna to bring radio stations in- was pretty cool.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Speaking of radios- i have my old sony explode cd player out of my truck - i have some factory ford speakers i bot at a thrift store cheep- i have a really old but awsome 150 watt 4 channel cheeper amp ( used it in my 1st truck, then in my new one with a MTX crossover) - ive been thinking which tractor i could put all that stuff on ......to actually hear the radio id need a real muffler.....since id probably not take it mudding- i shouldnt have an issue with water.


Years ago i actually hooked a 50 watt amp up to 2 - 6x9 speakers using a old car radio - with ear plugs in and tractor running/mowing - could hear it still - had the whole thing in a wooden box attached to a small trailer using alligator clips to hook it to the tractors battery - also used an old CB antenna to bring radio stations in- was pretty cool.

that's cool

Chunk wrote:

indianaboy93 wrote:

hey guys.
as of now i have a 12 hp briggs on my craftsman. and it runs very well. should i stay with it or see if i can use a 14 hp kohler command i have? (that mower with the kohler doesn't run but i think it is just electrical)

If you can get the Kohler to work well, use that. They're nice and torquey, and its a little different from the norm. Just my two cents

if i got it running idk how well it would because the guy who had it before me had sawn off the muffler and it only has 3 to 4 inches of exhaust pipe on it.

oh and good news!!!! i took those rear wheels i had and had a buddy at school mill down the hubs in his machine trades class (i wish i would have took it). so those will be going on tonight and hopefully front bumper tomorrow

hey guys. got a small update. put my new front wheels on. i love how they look on it. seemed to help with stability when at full speed.
should make a front bumper tomorrow
what you guys think?

both the front and back are 18 inches tall but the fronts got aired up alot more. oops

i think it looks real mean from the front, can't wait for a bumper

i think maybe if i add alittle air to the rear and take alittle out of the front then it will be alittle closer. but idk. would love to get some tires like on that green MTD fearless's buddy has.
well, fingers crossed. i'm going to attempt to build my front bumper.
may not sound too hard to you guys but for me its sorta big. lol

Update. got my front bumper on. i love it. lol
didn't have time to get pics of it. will sometime this weekend.